Category: American Place

These are poems that aim at reflecting something uniquely American in experience. Be it a place. Or a person or an experience. It had to happen somewhere to become something.

Fresh Snow

Shrill, shrieking screams
Cold. Violent. Chilling
to hear in the distance
A sharp thud and another
and a scream and more
yelling I can’t understand…

As gentle flakes drift
and sway in the silent wind

A murder
of crows caw and bolt
into flight as the next
wail splits the silence.

Round white globes volley
back and forth
another thud
another scream
as I approach.

Fresh snow, two hands
A shocking cold spray of
force and wet hits your
cheek and sticks
to your glasses.

“Hey, no fair! I said not in the face.”

2019 American Place Colorado Poems

Snow and Coal

A dark cloud rolls
O’er the town
Backlit by street lamps
Burning the midnight oil

As herds of children
In their ‘jams
Drag “experiential” parents
To the steam engine’s boil

For ‘cross this frosty
Little town
Large groups of people
Can be found

Searching for the next Express

Into a time they step
Back in line to board
The old coal and steel
From rail to tail first
Cold winter’s night

They experience the past
As if it were real
And Christmas wishes turn kisses
Into hot chocolate dreams. Awake
They return
Glowing with the magic of the season!

2019 American Place New Mexico Poems

Sketch

Post author By Makar
Post date December 14, 2019
No Comments on Sketch

Manganese for iron horse
Pulled from mountains with no remorse
To birth a nation with lines of steel
Nature stripped but never killed
Meteorite from another world
Maybe the lizard’s celestial fuel

2019 Albuquerque American Place New Mexico Poems

Early Departure

Empty streets
only 3 kinds
Driving
Drunks, Cops, Work
4:55am
No cops
Tied up
w/ drunks?
No bodies
in a hurry
to get
to work.
Flight
6:05am
Don’t want
to be late
for the
wait.

2019 Albuquerque American Place Garden Psalms Poems

Whipping torrent
Whistles away
Last hold outs.
Stripping bare trees
In preparation
For first snow;
Long and calm
After wild wisps.
Clouds; tentacles
Reaching out
To whip the
Sky to attention
And receive
The constant
Constellation;
Stars dancing
In the street lights.
Settling into
Contrasting parallels;
Vascular branches,
Reaching out.
Breathless.
Persistent.
Silent.
Mesmerizing…

2019 Albuquerque American Place Poems

Thanksgiving Day

Relief.
Months of
Mounted
pressures
Released
for the
first time.
Steam bursting
from a boil
of potatoes
changing
soiled
potential
into energy.
Gathered
friends to
remember
and enjoy
the bounty
that our labors
have provided.
“Let us give thanks.”

2019 American Place Arizona Poems

Bell Rock

Boys
Are dumb
And I was one
Who stood upon
A red rock ledge
At the top of the bell
Where it all went to hell
While I almost fell to my death
As the couple sunbathed on the spire
Below us. — Bandana over foot, iron spike
And a couple friends spared my corpse
from too much youthful ambition.

2019 American Place Poems

Tsegai

Post author By Makar
Post date November 14, 2019
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Protected valley
Almost secret.
Easily missed.
A closed garden
Naturally walled
With mesas on
All sides. Few
Openings for
Free passage
Among the stones.
Seasonal bounty
Arises. Perfect
Conditions for life.
Fertile volcanic
Soil needs only
Moist covering
To yield sustenance.
Native flowers,
Cacti, cedar
Abound, adapted
To dry and
Sometimes
Absent thunderstorms.
One monsoon
and her ridges
will be riddled with
The colors of
A desert bloom.

2019 Albuquerque American Place Bird Song Garden Psalms Poems

Wanderer

As
Fast
As a Falcon Flies
Pere-
Grine
Fastest bird alive
Tracks
Three
Objects with one eye
Sharp
White
Feathers, tucked to fly
Brown
Tail
Strapp’d down for the ride
Sharp
Gold
Talon avicide
Bloody
Dinner for his bride.

2019 American Place Poems

Rock slide

Boys
are dumb
I was one
I sat upon a
Rocky Mountain
shale slide eating
lunch with my brother
And sister. A logging road
As the likes my parents loved
To drive around on. I sat upon
A slide of shale that went down
For a while. I thought what fun it
Would be to slide on down that mile
and so I listened to my will and let go.
Down I went at quite a clip, wound up below
Terrified, I realized the error of my ways and began
to cry. “Dad, Dad! help me!” and down he came a bound
he sprang to my rescue. “Are you alright?” he said with fright

“Let’s get out of here.”